Essex regained the Cheshunt Salver with the narrowest of victories over the combined U18 & U16 Hertfordshire Boys by 10 points to 8 at a very wet Essendon Country Club in this annual encounter.

The course was foreshortened with tees moved up to protect the wet tees and with all bunkers out of play allowing players to be aggressive with their strategy.

The match was a close call with 8 of the 18 games going to the 18th green with 4 games finishing all square.

The morning Foursomes gave a slight advantage to Essex with the lunchtime score 3½- 2½.

Boys Captain and recently crowned County Schools Champion, Greg Hurley, partnering Jack Kelly, got the home team off to a good start with a 2&1 victory. That was followed by Mill Green pairing of Sam Caney & Adam Tridgell securing a half point. However the next two games went the way of the visitors with Harry’s Bigham and Brown losing 2&1 and Essendon pairing of Liam Purcell with Sam Linskey just missing out 2 down. Oliver Lennie and Finlay Craigmyle proved a strong combination with an emphatic 5&4 win. Disappointingly the final pairing of Matthew Gauntlett with Ashay Dhingra lost out by just 1-hole.

The afternoon singles also went to Essex by 1-point with the home team achieving just 4 wins. Captain Greg again got his team off to the best of starts with another 2&1 win in a high quality game with both boys swapping birdies a plenty. But alas the next 7 games just brought the home team 1½ points through 3 halved games from Harry Brown, Harry Bigham and Sam Caney.

The final score was made to look a lot closer with the 3 last U16 games going to Hertfordshire.

Sam Linskey had a resounding win by 4&3 and Ashay Dhingra had a titanic battle to win 1-up, by getting up and down on the last two holes to halve them to remain just in front. Matthew Gauntlett had the largest victory winning on the 14th green by 5&4.